I read “IQ84” written by Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite authors, in my commuting time for a few weeks.

I finished reading it this morning while my commuting by train.

Before joining my present company, I mainly read books related to business like marketing, public relations and so on. I didn’t choose to read fiction.

However, I recently read a lot of fictions.

As for works by Haruki Murakami, I have read almost all his books except for a few ones.

In July, I read “Kafka on the Seashore.” and “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage”.

To be honest, I was not satisfied with the whole story of Tsukuru Tazaki. Kafka was as good as I had expected it to be.

IQ84 is a long story with two parallel worlds. The story structure reminded me of “The Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the World” which I considered Murakami’s best work.

Murakami created a more complicated parallel world in 1Q84 than the Hardboiled wonderland.

In 1Q84, there are two protagonists. Their names are “Tengo” and “Aomame”.

Tengo, a male protagonist, is a typical male main character in Murakami’s works. There was nothing new to me.

On the other hand, Aomame is a female protagonist. I don’t think Murakami describes a female protagonist, especially in long stories.

Therefore, I think it is a new challenge for Murakami to set a female protagonist
as a protagonist in such a long story (IQ84 has consisted of 3 volumes of books). I think he did a nice job in this story. I admit his growth as an author here.

Since I enjoyed the story a lot, I even felt sorry when I finished reading it.